run>TRANSFER.exe

“Now, magic, as some of you may know, used to be a very prominent part of pony society, though for some unknown reason, only unicorns were privy to this power. However, it’s been nearly a thousand years since the practice was outlawed,” the teacher said. “Does anypony know, offhoof, the punishment for knowing or utilizing magic in any form?”

Blue Ribbon, the class representative, a light blue pegasus with a very neat black mane, raised a hoof intently. The teacher nodded to her. “Any known magic-users are put to death for disobedience of The King’s law. Furthermore, any in possession of magical texts or instructions will be detained and interrogated in the pursuit of the one who supplied the possessor, and, should the possessor be compliant with the gathering of this information, he or she will be sent to a rehabilitation facility for re-education,” she recited with more than a small hint of pride.

“Very good, Miss Ribbon. If I remember correctly, your father is one of The King’s Guard, isn’t he?” It was barely noticeable, but many of the class seemed to shrink into their seats at the mention of the organization.

“Yes, ma’am.” Blue Ribbon said. She looked back to the rear corner of the class to see if the new transfer student, Crimson Core, a red-coated unicorn with an untidy white mane, had any sort of reaction to this information. Unfortunately, his face, beyond what seemed to be a perpetual steely glare, bore no expression. Of course. Damn, I thought I could get him to at least look up from that computer. She’d have to ask him what he was working on so intently after class.

“A thousand years ago,” the teacher continued, “The King wrested control of Ancient Equestria and various surrounding provinces from the stagnating grasp of the four Heretic Princesses and the bearers of a set of dangerous magical artifacts called the Elements of Harmony. Now, don’t be fooled by the name. These Elements of Harmony were horrible items with the ability to rewrite a pony’s destiny, which is among the greatest of offenses to The King.”

One of the students behind Blue Ribbon raised a hoof. “Hey, teach, what does that even mean? How can rewriting the destiny of anything be possible at all?”

“An excellent question, Hoops. In effect, these Elements of Harmony were able to remove an individual’s capacity for free will, aligning them to the will of the users. In some cases, this even meant turning the victim to stone, something rumored to have been done to many of the heretic princesses’ political enemies.”

A bell pealed overhead, signalling the end of the school day. Students rushed to pack away their notes and textbooks, friends grouping together to head to clubrooms or just go home. Blue Ribbon left her belongings at her desk and made a beeline for Crimson Core. He’d somehow slipped away during the lunch break, but she wasn’t about to let him get away again. He was still typing away furiously on his portable computer, paying little (if in truth any) heed to any of the numerous ponies now crowding around him and pestering him with questions. “Alright, that’s enough, everypony. Stop bothering our new student.” The crowd seemed to quiet down and back away as she approached. She set a hoof on his desk. “Sorry about them,” she said. Nothing. “Being in one of the outer districts of the city, we don’t get a whole lot of excitement.” Still no reaction. “I’m Blue Ribbon, by the way. The class representative.” Still nothing. What in the name of The King!? Is this guy completely unflappable? “Anyway, if you’re not busy with anything tonight, I was thinking I could walk you home so I could get to know you.” A few of the still-lingering colts made small cheering sounds before Blue Ribbon shot them dirty looks.

With a snap, Crimson Core closed his computer and slipped it into his bag. “Sure.”

“Alright, then.” Blue Ribbon cheered internally. His voice was as cold as his glare, but at least she’d gotten him to say something, and maybe now she could get some information about him. “I just have a few duties to take care of, but those should only take a few minutes.”

“Fine.”

After a few minutes of packing things away and making a small list of things that the class needed done by the end of the week, Blue was ready to leave. She found Crimson once again surrounded by, and pointedly ignoring, other members of the class. “Ready to go?” She called out.

The surrounding classmates once again backed away and quieted down. Crimson looked up and gave what could have been the first smile Blue had seen on his face, even if it was more akin to a smirk than a genuine smile. “Yeah.” He trotted to Blue’s side as she stepped out of the room.

They walked together for a while in silence, Blue hoping for Crimson to take the conversational initiative, but as they left the school building, a towering steel and glass structure, she felt the need to break the silence. “So, why’d you agree to walk with me?” Everything she’d observed so far about him made this activity seem very unusual for the antisocial transfer student.

“You seemed interesting. You commanded respect with the others.” Well, that was more words in two sentences than she’d gotten out of him the entire day. Progress.

“Well, I am the class representative, so it’s only natural that they respect me.”

“It’s more than that. You have a natural charisma that other ponies just don’t have. Even the teacher seemed weak compared to you. Just the kind of pony who would do well in The King’s Guard.”

Blue Ribbon smirked. “Well, that’s true. In fact, I’m aiming for a position with them. Of course, I won’t be the first of my family to be a part of it.”

“Your father. Captain Gleipnir, if I’m not mistaken.” Crimson’s eyes didn’t move from the path ahead of him. Odd, most ponies got uncomfortable and shifted around when speaking of The King’s Guard. Wait, how…

“How do you know my father?”

“I’ve met him, once. He’s a good stallion. You have the same energy as he does.”

That was a little creepy. How could this transfer student have met Blue’s father? Better change the subject. “So, where were you before coming to Neo-Canterlot?”

“I’ve been many places. This isn’t the first Neo-Canterlot school I’ve been to, either. I was at one of the inner districts for about a year.”

Wow. The inner districts? That was impressive. Only ponies with lots of connections got to live there, let alone go to school there. “Why’d you leave the inner district?”

“I don’t have any parents, so I’ve got to work myself. What I do keeps me on the move.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know about your parents.”

“No need to apologize. It’s not something that bothers me.” Absolutely unflinching.

Is there something wrong with him? No, Blue, don’t think like that. “So what is it that you do? Does it have to do with what you were doing on your computer today?”

Crimson response consisted only of a few moments silence.

“Are you alright, Crimson?” Blue asked.

“Yeah. Just… Don’t ask about what I’m working on. It’s safer if you don’t know.”

Blue raised an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re not doing anything illegal, are you?” That earned her a sidelong glance. “Hey, I’m just kidding. There’s no way anypony who knows my dad would be involved in anything The King doesn’t approve of.”

“Right,” Crimson said shortly. “It’s just some programming for a big corporation. I’m not supposed to talk about it, since that could violate my contract with them.”

“Okay, I get it.” They walked in silence again for a few minutes. “You know, maybe you should open up a bit more, participate in class. You know, just a suggestion.”

For a moment, Crimson was silent again. “Maybe,” he said. “If I do, do you think you could perhaps help me out with my project?”

“I thought you weren’t allowed to talk about it.”

“Well, I’m coming up on a portion that requires an outside volunteer. And, seeing as you’re so hot on getting me to open up, I thought you’d make the perfect subject for this phase.”

Blue thought for a bit. It wasn’t like he was involved in something illegal, right? He’d said as much- no, actually he hadn’t. He’d given her an unreadable glance. But that wasn’t like a confession of guilt or anything. He did say he’d be more open if she did help out, which was one of the aims of this whole foray. And he also said he was working for one of the big corporations. If she got a recommendation from one of them, that would put her in an even better standing for a position in the Guard. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Crimson didn’t look at her, but she thought she saw a genuine smile. “Excellent,” he said. “Meet me tomorrow at 8 in the evening, at my place. Hopefully you’ll remember how to get there after today.” He stopped in front of a tall apartment complex. “And here we are.”

“Wait, you actually live here?” Blue asked.

“Yeah. The entire top floor is mine. What of it?”

“Student housing this close to the school is supposed to be really expensive! Just what kind of salary are you getting for this programming you do!?”

“It’s not that big a deal. I just needed the space for the equipment. The bill for the movers was more than the monthly rent on this place.”

What. Just what. That’s all Blue’s mind could conceive of at the time. Neo-Canterlot had a shortage of space, especially out here in the outer districts, and this one colt was taking up an entire floor of an apartment complex!? She’d already asked it, but just what the hell was this colt getting paid? What could generate so much money? Even Blue’s father’s salary from The King’s Guard only got the family something half the size, and five times as far from the school.

“Anyway, thanks for walking with me. I look forward to working with you tomorrow evening.” Crimson took a metal key card from his bag and slid it through the card slot at the door. He trotted through the door as it slid open for him and closed after him.

Blue Ribbon simply sat there, stunned.

run>NEW_SCENE.exe

Crimson Core moved up the stairs of his building with a purpose. He had to perfect the program he was working on by tonight. He couldn’t do much work tomorrow during the day if he was socializing, and that was part of this bargain with the class representative, and if he didn’t have her assistance with the test tomorrow, the program would be deemed a failure. If the program was a failure, he wouldn’t get paid, and he hadn’t lied to Blue Ribbon: the moving cost was not cheap by any means, nor was the rent. So annoying, he thought. At least the cost of rent was down somewhat because the elevator didn’t work. So, here he was, climbing the ten floors between the lobby of the complex and his humble home. It was a good thing that his one strong physical attribute was his endurance, and sustained running was his specialty.

Unfortunately, while getting paid was in fact in the forefront of his thoughts, it was not his most important concern. She was depending on him. He couldn’t fail her now, not when he’d come so close. He was going to bring her back.

But to do that, he would need an “angelic soul,” whatever that was. He thought he’d figured it out, but he wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure. He would try it anyway, though. He didn’t have any more time.

He finally reached his door and looked around for any sign of watchers. When he saw the coast was clear, his horn lit up with a magical glow, and the door opened, seemingly of its own accord. “I’m home,” he said aloud. He entered the suite, and surveyed the room with a satisfied look. What must have been a metric ton of computer equipment was consolidated in the center of the room, and on the wall facing the window, a giant flatscreen monitor overlooked the room.

The monitor was currently dominated by the black-and-white image of a pony. At first glance, one would have thought her to be a unicorn, but closer inspection showed that she also possessed wings. “Welcome back,” the image said.

“I think I’ve finally got everything I need to pull it off,” Crimson said. “Just like you said, I found somepony with an ‘angelic soul,’ exactly as you described it. She’s going to come here tomorrow after school.”

“Good. I’m sorry to have to put you through this, but tomorrow’s the last chance we have.”

“I know. You don’t have to remind me. And don’t worry about me. This is the least I can do to thank you for helping me learn magic. You wouldn’t believe how bad it is out there. We actually went over it in class today, how just knowing magic will earn you the death penalty.”

The alicorn image sighed. “I do believe it. I was there when The King took over, remember?”

“You were also named a ‘heretic princess’,” Crimson said with a smirk as he sat down and began typing on two different keyboards at once, his attention divided between two screens of code and one full of princess. “How does that make you feel?”

“You’re enjoying this far too much, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Just a bit.” He continued typing, making a few minor corrections at the direction of the pony on the screen. This continued for the next several hours, until the digital clock at the bottom corner of the two screens flashed 3:33 AM. “Finally,” he said. “It’s done. No errors, nothing. It’s going to work. It’s definitely going to work.”

He looked to the image of the alicorn, a huge grin on his face, but she didn’t reciprocate the expression. Her face looked gravely serious. “I really do have to apologize,” she said. “This must have been incredibly taxing on you, and I hate to imagine what this is going to put your classmate through.”

“I keep telling you not to worry,” Crimson said, flinging himself onto a squishy futon in one corner of the room. “I’m going to do this. I’m going to set you free, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Author's Note

First chapter, hee-ho!
This story is loosely based on Aya Nishitani's Digital Devil Story - Megami Tensei and the Megami Tensei game franchise.
The first two books of the Digital Devil Story Trilogy can be found here. Unfortunately, the third book isn't translated yet.

Anyway, tell me what you think! I hope to create a gripping and original adaptation here!
-Plaz